Eric Bachman interviewed about #metoo in the financial services industry

Eric Bachman interviewed about #metoo in the financial services industry

Glass Ceiling Discrimination Blog provides updates and unique analysis about promotion discrimination, sexual harassment, and employment law. It is written by the team of employment lawyers at Zuckerman Law and edited by Eric Bachman, Chair of the Firm's discrimination and retaliation practice.

Sexual harassment lawyer Eric Bachman spoke with WealthManagement.com about the persistent problem of sexual harassment against female financial advisors and why so few of them report this illegal behavior.

“It’s really necessary for [firms] to be out in front of this and treat this like a real business problem that they need to be figuring out the solution to and giving it the appropriate prioritization within the organization,” says Eric Bachman, a principal with Zuckerman Law, where he is the chair of the discrimination and retaliation practices. “And until that happens, you’re going to keep seeing sexual harassment problems in this industry.”

Examples of harassment among financial advisors

According to Wealth Management.Com’s reporting, examples of the sexual harassment include clients coming up to a female financial advisor and kissing her out of the blue. When she complained, her manager said, “I expect you to do whatever it takes to keep that client.”

Recent high-profile cases involve different firms, such as Fidelity and Morgan Stanley, who fired top performers and executives accused of sexual harassment.

But for every case that is investigated and some measure of accountability is imposed, countless other instances of harassment go unreported or are simply ignored by the company.

Indeed,

in a recent WealthManagement.com survey, nearly 62 percent of respondents who were harassed or witnessed harassment said they did not use the protocols those firms have in place to address the incident. That number is nearly 66 percent for women.

According to WealthManagement.com, a range of reasons exist for why the harassment is not reported, including “fear of retaliation and ostracism within the office, the fact that the offender was the victim’s manager or a belief that the complaint would not be taken seriously.”

Steps to take to better address sexual harassment in the financial services industry

It would be unusual, not to mention bordering on legal malpractice, for a company not to have any policies for reporting harassment in place. But, as the survey results above make clear, if 66% of female financial advisors don’t use these policies to report the harassment, then something is not working correctly.

“You can have protocols in place that look great in theory, but if nobody is ever actually disciplined for having harassed somebody, then those protocols start to look like your complaint goes into a black hole and you never know what has happened other than you start to fear that you’ll be retaliated against,” Bachman says.

One issue to be tackled is that firms must investigate and address harassment allegations even if it involves a “rainmaker” or ‘big producer.” “These are people who have excelled in their fields and have earned a stature that warrants certain privileges,” according to Fran Sempler. “I think anyone who has worked in the professions I mentioned knows at least one of these people, and recognize fully that while there is increasing likelihood that employers will act in the face of their bad behavior, it is more likely that the reporting target be mollified than the harassment stop,” Sempler noted.

Bachman agrees. “If it’s a high producer within the firm who’s doing the harassing, you’re going to find a lot of the times that there’s even less stomach by the firm to go after that person and hold them accountable precisely because they are making the firm so much money,” he says.

Another novel approach is to partially tie managers’ bonuses to how well they promote and advance the company’s diversity and anti-discrimination policies. This is consistent with an idea suggested by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in his report regarding Uber’s diversity issue. “Certainly, in the financial services industry money talks, and folks are going to take notice where it starts to hit them in the wallet,” Bachman says.

“I think [women are] going to be more likely to actually take concrete action against folks who’ve been shown to be harassers, so it’s a little bit of a chicken and the egg in terms of glass ceiling and sexual harassment,” Bachman says. “Hopefully, as women continue to attain higher positions in these financial services companies, that will bring about much needed change to the workplace sexual harassment environment.”

Hiring an experienced employment discrimination lawyer

Hiring a proven and effective advocate is critical to obtaining the maximum recovery in an employment discrimination case. Eric Bachman, Chair of the Firm’s Discrimination Practice, has substantial experience litigating precedent-setting individual and class action discrimination cases. His wins include a $100 million settlement in a disparate impact Title VII class action and a $16 million class action settlement against a major grocery chain. Having served as Special Litigation Counsel in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and as lead or co-counsel in numerous jury trials, Bachman is trial-tested and ready to fight for you to obtain the relief that you deserve.

U.S. News and Best Lawyers® have named Zuckerman Law a Tier 1 firm in Litigation – Labor and Employment in the Washington DC metropolitan area. Contact us today to find out how we can help you. To schedule a preliminary consultation, click here or call us at (202) 769-1681 or (202) 262-8959.

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About the author

Eric Bachman litigates employment discrimination, including "glass ceiling," claims as well as whistleblower retaliation cases. He is Chair of the discrimination and retaliation Practices at Zuckerman Law. Previously, Bachman served as Special Litigation Counsel with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, and Deputy Special Counsel for Litigation and Legal Affairs with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.

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